The AI Arms Race: Real Tools, Real Use Cases & What's Actually Working Right Now | The Ad Project

Chapters: 00:00 – Intro & Welcome: Ryan Craver joins The Ad Project 01:00 – Ryan's background: Accenture → Commerce Canal → Podean 02:15 – Why AI feels impossible to keep up with right now 03:00 – The AI market landscape: OpenAI, Anthropic, Perplexity, Google 04:30 – Claude Sonnet 4.6, OpenClaw & the recent model flip-flop 05:30 – Amazon CreativeX & how fast image/video AI has evolved 06:00 – Ryan's current AI stack: what he's actually using 07:30 – What is OpenClaw? Agent orchestration explained simply 09:00 – Joe's home server setup & connecting OpenClaw to a model 10:30 – Perplexity Computer: what it is and how it compares 12:30 – Claude Cowork & the Claude desktop app deep dive 14:00 – Skills, Connectors & Plugins: building repeatable agency workflows 17:00 – Recurring tasks & the shift from search engine to true assistant 17:30 – Will AI output become too recognizable? The "dash problem" 18:45 – Using brand guidelines + skills to maintain voice & consistency 19:30 – Empowering the whole team to build — not just the tech leads 20:15 – Avoiding model lock-in: the case for staying model-agnostic 21:30 – Is Anthropic winning the enterprise race? The Microsoft vs. Apple analogy 23:00 – Models as commodities & the "picks and shovels" opportunity 24:15 – Perplexity's model-routing approach & what it signals for the future 25:00 – Introducing the Power Craver Charge Podcast — what's coming next 26:30 – Wrap-up & farewell 🔗 Connect: Podean: https://podean.com/ Joe Shelerud on LinkedIn:   / joeshelerud   Ryan Craver on LinkedIn:   / ryanmcraver